Crate at Dulles With Radioactive Gas Is Damaged

March 16, 1978

Damage to an outer packing crate on a shipment of radioactive Krypton-85 was discovered at Dulles International Airport Monday, but government specialists said yesterday there had been no escape of radioactive material.

The shipment, a 57-pound box en route from the Department of Energy's Oak Ridge, Tenn., laboratory to Bangkok, was returned to Oak Ridge yesterday for further examination, officials said.

The Kaypton-85, an inert, radioactive gas, was sealed in a steel-and-lead container that was not damaged, according to officials.

Aaron Fry, manager of the Federal Forwarding Co., a private freight handler at Dulles, noticed a damaged corner on the outer crate Monday. The shipment had been delivered to Dulles by Federal Express, a freight-only air line. Fry's frim would process it for shipment overseas.

As soon as Fry noticed the damage, he said, he called Oak Ridge. In turn, U.S. Army and Virginia Health Department specialists were notified. Both organizations told a reporter that they had tested the box and found that it was emitting radioactivity well within permissible limits and at the same levels as had been recorded when the shipment left Oak Ridge.

"To my personal knowledge there was no leakage," Fry said. "Everyonehere, including myself, has been checked and there is no problem."